Saturday, October 8, 2016

This Week (Mad Mumblings, Meringue, and Miscellaneous Musings)

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration.)

This week I have been basking in the cool weather, blading through pages in my memoir, taking a lot of bike rides, and getting buried under an avalanche of work (especially since all my late students decided to catch up at the same time). My days are busier than I’d like, so I’m trying to shuffle around my schedule to allow myself more optimum working hours.

The result of this busy schedule is me slowly getting crazier and crazier from being alone by myself all day. I’ve started talking to myself more. While reading Backpacker magazine: “Hey, I know that view! Yup, John Muir Wilderness. Been there. Totally been there. *checks caption* Oh wait. Not been there. That’s the other side of Whitney.” Editing student papers: “Because of course that’s the only conclusion you can draw from this statistic. Of course.” To my refrigerator: “Well then! Where is that mason jar of tomato soup? Give it up! I know it’s expired. *rummage rummage* You won’t fool me... Good grief, where is it? Did you swallow it?” While editing another paper: “If I have to type another lecture about dialogue punctuation, so help me—!” To an extension cord: “Why won’t you reach the crockpot? Oh, you’re so tangled up. *excessively heavy sigh as I’m untangling it* Don’t say I never did anything for you.” To myself, in the mirror: “Shafter, you’re talking to yourself again.” “Yes, I know, but who else am I going to talk to?”

I biked to Fox Hill Park, which is a long way for me!#nofilterjustabadcamera

Anyway! Despite the manic mumblings to myself, it’s a good feeling to be getting stuff done and have the days fly by. I’ve also been reading some good books (I’ll post reviews later) and enjoying the privilege of making food that requires extended time in the oven, something I can’t do in the summer. (Roasted sweet potato biscuits: win. First shot at homemade meringue, made without a recipe: well, it fell and didn’t form nice peaks, but it tastes really good!)

My cool-weather crops, especially the peas and carrots, are growing famously, happy that the scorching summer is past. Only one of my spinach seeds germinated, so I’m gonna try to plant some more to get a small harvest before the frost hits (which will be soon, I’m sure). We’ll see how that goes.

An important project I tackled this week is researching the candidates and amendments/propositions for the upcoming election. A lot of people aren’t sure whom to vote for as president, which means that the senators/house representatives/governors/etc. become even more important! If you live in Missouri, check out the link below: you can enter your address and they’ll show you a copy of the ballot you’ll see on November 8th. Please take a moment to figure out who’s up for election!